“Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different” by Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk is a unique human being. He has this unorthodox way of thinking that is really out of the usual norm and even considered as dark and twisted. It is reflected in his many work that includes 19 novels, 3 non-fiction books, 2 graphic novels, 2 adult coloring books, and a handful of short stories in between.
This book is an excellent sneak peak on that: his thought patterns and the way he sees things, which show the reasonings behind his weird but wonderful stories, stories that he observed as similar like the typical punk rock music that starts strong, very loud, and finish abruptly before you know it.
The book, however, is not your typical memoir. Yes there are bits and pieces about his life every now and then, but the main focus of the book is his writing journey, the drawing board behind his masterpieces. All those technicalities on writing and publishing are covered, which makes reading it like talking with a football coach about the specific parts of strategies, or watching a movie with a director’s commentary.
In several chapters he breaks down the art of writing into very specific parts and use a huge library of examples to make his points, with the relevant scenes from books and movies.
Specifics, such as how to dictate the speed of the writing, how to fill in the gap between 2 scenes, on creating memorable dialogues, how to use page breaks, avoiding the common mistake to give away everything at the opening sentence, on creating and curbing tensions (the stripper and the comedian), how to create new rules in the story and repeat them, how to submerge the “I”, how to crowd seed a writing idea, using head authority or heart authority, on character developments occurring through the little choices they make, or how to find imperfections in nonfiction form and use them to make our fiction seems more real and less polished. He even create his own grammar rules at some of his books. Yup, as I said, out of the usual norm.
He also dwell deep into the many techniques to do special effects in the flow of writing, like the vertical and horizontal expansion of a story development, on using what he calls the clock versus the gun, or even putting a page number backwards with the end at page 1 in order to create extra tension. I never knew that there are so many writing ways to create something like a sound effect or camera tricks in a movie. His example on how he build up his story from merely his dog’s sadness when the dog sees his suitcase, to a dark twist where a child is trapped inside the suitcase, is a prime example for this.
Moreover, I love the way he describes his process of creating a writing from zero, to first draft, to the many drafts afterwards where he’s making ongoing notes, bounce off ideas with his trusted people to close some gaps or loopholes, perfecting it as he goes like painters perfecting their art, and tweaking the pace and ending. He also shows how he can draw inspirations from the menial day-to-day tasks or from the unlikeliest places such as a magazine, his laundromat, the 4th step of the AA meeting, or a seminar for used car salespeople.
The book also discusses anything that surrounds the process of writing, such as having a complete stationaries or logistical tools for writing, having a support group of fellow writers and mentors, and addresses difficult issues such as book piracy, copyright violations from the fans, scams and traps from people who wants to claim that we stole their ideas, on book tours, and the many incredible stories about his interactions with his fans that can teach us one or two things.
Indeed, there is arguably no other book on writing that provides us with the blunt honesty about writing and its world than this book. And there are so many advices told after the line “If you were my student…” which makes this book the closest thing to attending Chuck Palahniuk’s writing classes in person. The last chapter in particular, where he provide a table of all the tips and tricks to troubleshooting our writing, is superb and forces us to think about writing (and view the world in general) in a whole different way, a fresh and unique way.
I like him, he’s brilliant but nuts.
THE CHAOS THEORY 